LaLa and the Burnt Tubby Toast
Disclaimer: All characters and places belong to the BBC
Chapter 2 - Burnt Toast and Broken Hearts
The flames were a bright, vivid red and were tickling the ceiling. The scooter Po had been riding was left abandoned in the doorway, Tinky Winky in all his hurry did not notice the scooter and stumbled over. He swore under his breath. 'Damn Po' he thought, 'always leaving her belongings everywhere'.
Tinky Winky stood up and continued towards the smoke cloud, he could roughly make out the shapes of Dipsy, LaLa and Po. They were jumping up and down and waving their arms around. 'For Christ's sake' thought Tinky Winky 'can't they put out a fire?' He made a grab for the vacuum named Noo-Noo and proceeded to suck up the flames with the vacuum cleaner's snout.
As the flames were sucked up, the smoke slowly faded away. The rest of the tubbies started to jump up and down rhythmically chanting "flames go bye bye ". Tinky Winky placed Noo-Noo back on the floor and faced the tubbies who had started to give him a big group hug. Tinky Winky returned the hug and quickly pulled away, he needed to find out who started the fire, and how it had happened. Tinky Winky took the safety of his home and tubbies very seriously.
"Fire. Who started it?" He asked, the tubbies looked around nervously, refusing to look Tinky Winky directly in the eye. Tinky Winky repeated the question, this time with an urgency to his voice. "Fire. Who started it?"
It was Po who broke the uncomfortable silence. "Lala. She make toast. She leave it in to long. Then fire" The rest of the tubbies gasped in shock of Po's betrayal. LaLa gave Po a dirty look before blushing heavily at the look on Tinky Winky's face. Tinky Winky dismissed the rest of the tubbies and took LaLa over to the kitchen where the charred remains of toast laid in the toaster.
"How could you be so irresponsible?" Tink Winky asked LaLa solemnly.
"I don't know, I put the toast in the toaster and then I saw something outside, and then the toast was on fire" LaLa replied while fiddling with her thumbs.
Tinky Winky was skeptical, LaLa often daydreamed, it was for this reason why she wasn't allowed to make Tubby Toast without supervision.
"What did you see?" Tinky Winky asked wile looking into LaLa's TV screen. The only way to tell whether a tubby was lying or not was to look into their TV screen.
LaLa blushed at the sight of Tinky Winky standing so close. "I don't know"
Tinky Winky stood up abruptly and said a bit too harshly "What do you mean you don't know?"
LaLa was taken aback by Tink Winky's tone. "It...tt was b-b-big and black" she managed to sputter.
Tinky Winky noticed the change in her voice and realized that it was because of his harshness, that her tone had changed. "LaLa, I'm sorry, I never meant to scare you" and hugged LaLa to comfort her, he knew she was telling him the truth. It wasn't a flimsy made-up daydream that caused her to burn the Tubby Toast.
LaLa inhaled the flowery scent that was Tinky Winky. She loved the way he smelt, and the way he could be so serious, yet so caring. His arms provided that comforting care that only someone heroic could provide.
Tinky Winky noticed the longness of their hug, he pulled away feeling uncomfortable. LaLa looked up at him, and smiled. "I...I..do...I...I really like you Tinky Winky" she said breathlessly. Tinky Winky shocked and suprised at LaLa's revelation, turned on his heel and left LaLa standing there confused and heartbroken. 'What have I done?' thought LaLa.